Call for Papers

[Sherman Wilcox]

Theme Session Call for Papers

6th International Cognitive Linguistics Association (ICLA) Conference
(Stockholm, July 1999)

Typological Research on Signed Languages: Cognition and Discourse
Structure

Session Coordinators: Sherman Wilcox and Terry Janzen


Several hundred signed languages are known to exist in the world, used
within communities in which the signed language is the primary language.
Most grammatical description of these languages, however, is not extensive,
and is confined to no more than a handful of these languages. There is
speculation that signed languages may share a significant number of
linguistic features even when such languages are genetically unrelated, due
in part to their common use of the hands and body as articulators and the
eyes, rather than ears, as perceptual organs. Very little actual work,
however, has been carried out with respect to which specific grammatical
features are shared, and which may differ.

Many questions surrounding the relationship between cognition and signed
language structure involve the cross-linguistic typology of structural and
semantic categories. It is not yet clear, however, whether certain
linguistic features of signed languages emerge cross-linguistically because
users of these languages employ similar articulatory and perceptual
systems, and how much variation between and within particular categories
exists.

The purpose of this session is to focus on information processing and
discourse structure as typological features among signed languages. A
cognitive approach to this topic assumes that signers will structure
their discourse to best represent and convey what is cognitively salient,
and that the grammar that emerges within a community of language users will
reflect this cognitive motivation.

We invite papers which focus on cognition and features of discourse
structure in
a variety of signed languages, with the intention of facilitating
discussion among researchers regarding typological features.

Abstracts (700 to 1400 words) are invited, and should be submitted
by November 31 to each of the following:

        wilcox at unm.edu
        tjanzen at post.rrcc.mb.ca



===========================

Sherman Wilcox, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Dept. of Linguistics
University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131

http://www.unm.edu/~wilcox